Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Guitar gods and goddesses.

First we have a video from a Jeff Beck tour, featuring the amazing Jennifer Batten and her dazzling two-hand technique (get your mind out of the gutter). Jimmy Page said, "Nah, I don't play fast, piano players are faster," but Jennifer plays a guitar like a keyboard. I never knew that riff at the beginning of this song was her and not him. Jeff works his usual magic in this song as well.



If you disagree with me that Jeff Beck is not a Guitar God, then you must watch this Stevie Wonder song he does nice and slow. It's not all speed metal on Mount Olympus, children. Eric Clapton said he was looking for the perfect note, and he hadn't found it yet. At the end of this song, Jeff plays a note that makes me cry.

Here's Jennifer playing the classical Flight of the Bumblebee, with lots of bees, and watch for the crazy 10-string guitar. Really, there are lots of bees. I hate bugs.

If you have enough hair on your chest to survive this, here's an 11-minute solo by Eddie Van Halen at his prime. This has more notes than Kurt Cobain played in his entire short lifetime. I believe that Edward is channeling energy from a parallel universe made up entirely of notes.

Also, Happy ANZAC Day, whatever that means.

6 comments:

Kindralas said...

Dazzling two-hand technique:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapping

There really isn't a lot of tapping in modern rock, you have to go back a ways to find some. Eddie Van Halen was pretty incredible at it.

People keep lobbying for Eruption in Guitar Hero. I pray it never happens. My hands couldn't take that.

Bpaul said...

I can't believe you failed to mention the HAIR Shocho, my GOD MAN -- it was like the mid 80's on STEROIDS right on her head!

Where I come from this style of guitar playing is referred to as Guitar Gemetzil (spelled wrong I'm sure) -- gemetzil being the Yiddish word for Massacre.

:-)

*quick airguitar flourish*

*poof of smoke*

-gone-

Shocho said...

I love Yiddish! Jennifer looked rather plain until she went on a big tour with Michael Jackson. MJ said she needed a new look, and she started spending 2 hours getting her hair to look like that. It still does these days, I think. Everybody has to have a shtick.

Shocho said...

Nice link, Mr. K. All good things come from Jimmy Page, indeed.

Aussie-Askew said...

I never got exposed to much of Mr Beck during my youth. Perhaps i can change that with some recommendations...

As for ANZACs, I got you all caught up on that Aussie holiday last year. Here's a brief post on the topic.

Shocho said...

Gallipoli was most definitely a day worth celebrating. I shall endeavor to remember this anon.

I guess the best Jeff Beck albums would be Wired and Blow by Blow. That's when he abandoned rock and went jazz fusion.

The classic albums are Truth and Beck-Ola, when he played with Ronnie Wood (later of the Faces and Stones) and Rod Stewart (later of the Lounge Lizards, that fucking sellout).